Modernising a Legacy: Why Reviewing Sri Lanka’s Excise Regulations Is Good News for Tourism
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has spent the past few years rebuilding — new routes, new markets, a renewed pitch to the higher-spending traveller. It is encouraging, then, to see the authorities taking a positive interest in reviewing the excise regulations that shape what a hotel can pour, stock, and sell. Much of this framework has stood untouched for decades — parts of it trace back to a notification from 1 June 1928 — and a considered modernisation is a welcome and overdue step.
The current rules were built for a different industry: one without international bar menus, cocktail culture, or guests who expect the same drinks list in Colombo that they’d find in Singapore or Dubai. As this review moves forward, we’d like to set out the areas we believe deserve particular attention.
The ABV rule that quietly excludes half the bar
The clearest example is the minimum alcohol-by-volume requirement. Imported “Foreign” liquor must currently sit between 37% and 50% ABV — a range that excludes Campari (24%), Aperol (11%), vermouths (14–18%), fortified wines such as Sherry and Port, and liqueurs like Kahlúa and Malibu. In practice, this means a hotel bar cannot legally import the ingredients for a Negroni, an Aperol Spritz, or a proper Espresso Martini — all standard requests from international guests.
This isn’t a case for looser regulation. It’s a straightforward correction: drop the minimum and retain the maximum at 50%. No new categories, no new tax structure — a single figure removed from the text, with real benefit to guest experience and benefit to excise revenue as imports move out of the grey market.
A wider opportunity within the same review
The ABV rule is the sharpest example, but the same modernisation could usefully take in a few related areas:
- Licensing, currently manual and outlet-specific, could move to a single digital licence per hotel rather than one per bar — less paperwork, same oversight.
- Stock transfers between properties under common ownership remain restricted, and reporting is still ledger-based rather than online.
- Serving hours and Poya Day restrictions limit guests to in-room service on days that fall outside many international visitors’ awareness of local observance.
- Slow-moving stock cannot currently be returned to suppliers, leaving hotels carrying inventory they can’t offload.
- Bar staff must hold a separate licence for every property they work at, rather than one that travels with them.
Taken together, these aren’t a case against regulation — they’re an opportunity to bring a well-intentioned framework in line with how a modern hospitality business runs day to day. It’s good news for the industry that many of these antiquated, impractical rules are being reviewed and should hopefully be updated before the winter season.
